July 26, 2013

App Tells You "Watt Time" Is Good to Run Appliances, Plug In the Car

Plugging in a car is enormously better for the planet than
filling up at the pump. But how green is your power source when you plug in?
That was a question UC Berkeley Ph.D. student and Sierra Club member Gavin
McCormick wanted to explore when he developed WattTime, a real-time energy
monitoring service that lets you know the best times to plug in a car, run the
dishwasher, or do the laundry.

"This is a way to look at your carbon footprint in real
time," said McCormick. "The focus isn’t peak versus off-peak hours. We’re
focused on clean versus dirty energy. With utilities providing power from a variety
of different sources, home and business owners have almost no way of knowing
where those sources are coming from."

WattTime, which is still in beta, sends text message alerts
that detail how green the electricity is at any given moment and location. In
general, research shows that the cleanest energy in the Midwest and
Mid-Atlantic happens during the day, "or right after you get home from work," said McCormick; the Southwest, the Rockies, and Texas around bedtime; and the New England and West
Coast states around five or six in the morning. McCormick likened WattTime to
weather updates -- something that can change within an hour.

A typical text might say something like: "WattTime Alert! Your power is from Coal
right now. Help us use less of that dirty energy source! Can you turn out an
extra light?" or "WattTime Alert! Your power is unusually clean right now -- wind. Can you avoid wasting that clean power? Great time to do
laundry or dishes!" He said savings for individuals would be comparable
to switching from a traditional big appliance to an EnergyStar labeled
appliance.

McCormick first developed the idea behind WattTime with
Google and Climate Corporation programmers for the CleanTech Goes Social
contest, where it was a finalist.

"Since that time, the Facebook Sustainability team has been
helping us to try to grow this small piece of software into a nonprofit or
startup with real impact," he said.

Facebook then referred Gavin to the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal
campaign, where he’s been working with Dan Proctor, chair of the Sierra Club of
Massachusetts. WattTime made the app available only to a select few
Sierra Club and Facebook representatives. Now it’s open to people in California
and New England. But McCormick plans to expand accessibility to larger circles
as the service and its features mature - and he hopes to turn it someday into
either a business or a non-profit.

User comments or postings reflect the opinions of the responsible contributor only, and do not reflect the viewpoint of the Sierra Club. The Sierra Club does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of any posting. The Sierra Club accepts no obligation to review every posting, but reserves the right (but not the obligation) to delete postings that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate.